Why are the Big 4 private partnerships?

While looking through glassdoor in preparation for my PwC FSR interview, I stumbled across this question. I can't find any sort of clear/concise explanation online. I will probably end up emailing my former PwC partner professor and ask, but was wondering if anyone on here could explain it to me? Thanks.

 

Could have something to do with the fact that, if they were public companies, the moral hazard of being obligated to public shareholders could cause them to be less honest in their practice (i.e. providing a incorrectly rosy audit as a large chunk of shareholders in the auditor are also invested in the company being audited.)

"Yes. Money has been a little bit tight lately, but at the end of my life, when I'm sitting on my yacht, am I gonna be thinking about how much money I have? No. I'm gonna be thinking about how many friends I have and my children and my comedy albums."
 
Best Response

One benefit is that you don't have to disclose everything to the public. Think about that for a minute though.... what does that mean? It means that employees have far more freedom with their expenses. It means higher-ups can go out and spend quite a bit on entertaining employees, and the only people who will bitch about it are the internal finance people -- not a horde of angry investors. These things do matter when you're putting your employees through really intense periods of work.

It also means being able to better control who will guide the direction of each firm. Some random shareholder won't have that kind of influence.

I'm not saying that these are THE biggest reasons that these firms are private. I am, however, saying that these are factors. Just repeating what I've heard from multiple senior partners at two of the Big 4.

 

Accounting firms aren't known for wild entertainment, but certain partners definitely live it up (6-figure CCs, expensive trips, etc.).

That's part of the problem. The guys that are good at BD and have social skills are the ones that spend big and then you get the technical partners that are introverts. Hard for them to keep up and there is a feeling of distaste since their compensation is reduced by the BD guys.

 

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